With the advance of modern medicine, more and more, interventional medical procedures such as arterial catheterization are used to access a patient's vascular system, heart and the like. For example, procedures such as trans-radial medical device implantation of devices and therapeutic treatment such as stents, grafts, stent-grafts, as well as mapping and drug delivery, and the like are commonly done through radial catheterization. In such procedures, the patient is typically placed in a supine position, and the radial artery of the patient's arm is catheterized for such procedures. Benefits such as increased patient comfort and decreased complications and cost can be realized by such radial catheterization. Trans-radial procedures are often desirable over more traditional femoral procedures because they can be more comfortable and less invasive to the patient and have shorter recovery times, especially trans-radial procedures performed via the left arm of a patient which is more similar to traditional femoral procedures than those performed via the right arm, in part because the vascular route that procedures in the right arm are more complex.
To facilitate such procedures, various arm support devices may be provided. Such devices include “arm boards,” which are generally simple, flat boards of fixed or limited mobility of the board in any direction, that are attached to an operating table or placed under the patient and extend alongside or outwardly from the patient. Generally, such boards are in the same or nearly the same plane as the patient's body. This aspect, coupled with the fact that such boards do not readily move to different positions means that notwithstanding some of the benefits of radial catheterization, doctors and practitioners performing such procedures are frequently required to perform the procedures from less than desirable positions and angles relative to the patient.
For example, the rooms and equipment used for such trans-radial procedures are often set up so that practitioner performs the procedure from the patient's right side. When procedures are performed on the patient's right arm, the angles and positions the practitioner must perform from are straight-forward. However, as noted above, procedures performed via the right arm are less desirable than those in the left. Thus, left arm procedures are preferred. However, because the practitioner typically works from the right side of the patient, left arm procedures using traditional equipment require the practitioner to lean over the patient, creating the noted undesirable positions and angles, and further, exposing the practitioner to additional radiation which is often used during such procedures for locating and tracking the medical devices within the patient. Attempts to avoid these problems include using pillows for support, strapping the arm across the body, and other less than desirable approaches.
As such, there is a need for improved devices, systems and methods for facilitating medical procedures such as radial catheterization, for example, by providing such devices having improved mobility and positioning functionality.